Dalglish Named New Dean of UMD's Philip Merrill College of Journalism

Goals include expanding partnerships and helping students become lifelong learners.

	Incoming Journalism Dean Lucy Dalglish (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite) (Click on photo for HiRes)

COLLEGE PARK , Md. - Lucy Dalglish, the Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, has been appointed the next dean of the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She will succeed Dean Kevin Klose on August 1.

"Lucy Dalglish's work puts her in the middle of some of the most critical journalism issues of the day, particularly those involving media rights and protections," said University of Maryland President Wallace Loh. "The Philip Merrill College of Journalism is fortunate to have someone with her broad experience, insight and vision to lead it through this era of transformation in the media world."

Dalglish says she intends to take steps to broaden the education of Merrill College students by working to create partnerships with other colleges within the university, while expanding opportunities with other journalism schools and working journalists. Her goal is to create journalism students who are lifelong learners.

"Over the past dozen years, I have had the opportunity to hire Maryland students as interns or employees and have always been impressed with their knowledge, skills and desire to learn. As dean, I look forward to working with everyone at the Merrill College and helping our students find success in the exciting and changing world of journalism."

Dalglish comes to Maryland after serving for more than twelve years as Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a voluntary, unincorporated association of reporters and news editors dedicated to protecting the First Amendment interests of the news media. Based in Arlington, Va., the Reporters Committee has provided research, guidance and representation in major press cases in state and federal courts since 1970. Ms. Dalglish is President of the National Freedom of Information Coalition and Supervisor for the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of media organizations working on federal information policy, which she co-founded.

Prior to assuming the position of Executive Director in January 2000, Dalglish was a media lawyer for almost five years in the trial department of the Minneapolis law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP. From 1980-93, Dalglish was a reporter and editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

This year, Ms. Dalglish won the National Press Foundation's W.M Kiplinger Award for distinguished contributions to journalism. In 1995, she was awarded the Wells Memorial Key, the highest honor bestowed by the Society of Professional Journalists for service to the Society and the journalism professions, and in 1996, she was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame. Dalglish earned a juris doctor degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1995; a master of studies in law degree from Yale Law School in 1988 (where she was a Knight Foundation Journalism Fellow) and a bachelor of arts in journalism from the University of North Dakota in 1980.

"With the appointment of a new dean and the support of the highly capable Journalism community, President Loh and I are extremely optimistic about the future of the Merrill College," said Provost Ann Wylie.

Outgoing Dean Kevin Klose will remain on the faculty of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism as a tenured professor teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses.

Philip Merrill College of Journalism
Dean Dalglish's Bio

About the Philip Merrill College of Journalism

The Philip Merrill College of Journalism is a leading journalism school offering a hands-on, professionally oriented curriculum designed with an eye on the future, a world-class faculty, innovative programs, state-of-the-art facilities, intimate class sizes, and a location just minutes from Washington, D.C., Annapolis and Baltimore.

The Merrill College is home to four Pulitzer Prize winners, as well as other leaders in the fields of print, broadcast and online journalism and internationally renowned communication scholars, including: Deborah Nelson (Carnegie Visiting Professor and Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter); Haynes Johnson (Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, best-selling author, national TV commentator); Ira Chinoy (an expert in computer-assisted reporting and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist); George Solomon (former assistant managing editor/sports at The Washington Post and ESPN Ombudsman and currently the director of the Shirley Povich Center on Sports Journalism); Susan Moeller, Professor of Media and International Affairs & Director, International Center for Media and the Public Agenda; Mark Feldstein, holder of the Richard Eaton Endowed Chair in Broadcast Journalism; and Kevin Blackistone (ESPN's Around the Horn and former Dallas Morning News reporter).

About the University of Maryland

The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. Ranked No. 17 among public universities by U.S. News & World Report, it has 30 academic programs in the U.S News Top 10 and 71 in the Top 25. The Institute of Higher Education (Jiao Tong University, Shanghai), which ranks the world's top universities based on research, puts Maryland at No. 38 in the world and No. 13 among U.S. public universities. For the fourth consecutive year, the University of Maryland ranked in the top 10 of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's list of Best Values in Public Colleges for 2011-12.The university has produced six Nobel laureates, four Pulitzer Prize winners, more than 40 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The university is recognized for its diversity, with underrepresented students comprising one-third of the student population. Visit the University of Maryland website for more information.

Where is the University of Maryland?

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